A Day in the Life of a Will-Be-Successful Real Estate Agent
What should your day look like if you want to find success in real estate? Here’s an example, complete with the must-do activities.
You’re determined to make a successful career in real estate. Wouldn’t it be great if you could shadow a successful real estate agent? You can. Here is the schedule of an ambitious new agent, as she creates a six-figure career—literally. This is the schedule I saw this agent use. I’ve just changed her name. This gives you a realistic idea of how to create a successful real estate career—fast.
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Let’s join Marie Smith, a determined, will-be-successful dedicated agent, as she works through a typically scheduled day. First, a little background about Marie, so you understand the skills she brought to real estate and the challenges facing her as a new agent.
Marie was a high school English teacher who became a salesperson, selling hotel convention space. She moved 2,000 miles to the Seattle area just before entering real estate. Even without a background in real estate, she feels good about her sales and writing skills because she developed these skills in her former jobs.
8 a.m.
Marie goes to the office because she knows she needs to plan activities and prepare paperwork and research while it’s still quiet there. She spends one hour doing support activities. Because her previous career was in sales, and she had to generate leads, she knows that her career starts there.
Her goal is to spend four hours per day and contact 100 potential leads per week. She knows this time spent will give her the needed number of potential clients and customers to meet her earning expectations of one sale per month as a new agent.
9 a.m.
After spending an hour planning, Marie is ready to phone potential buyers and sellers to ask whether they know someone who wants to buy or sell a home. These are all people in her database or in the communities she is farming. Marie chose to phone them because she doesn’t know many people in the area and realizes that this is a quick method to find prospects. For two hours, Marie talks to 40 homeowners and makes two appointments for that week. This is a normal ratio for Marie. She gets two appointments from 40 calls. She is careful to ensure the people she’s calling are not on the DO-NOT-CALL list.
10 a.m.
Marie takes a break and moves to support activities. To counsel buyers and sellers well, she wants to be sure she knows the available properties on the market. For two hours, Marie previews properties in her area—not the way low producers preview them. Because she has clients, she looks at properties for a specific purpose.
Noon:
Marie takes a break and has a sandwich at a restaurant near where she lives and works. While there, she hands her card to the waitress and asks for prospects. The waitress refers a friend who wants to buy a property. Marie always takes every opportunity to ask for leads.
1 p.m.
Marie continues her business-generating activities by knocking on doors in the neighborhood where she lives. A home has been listed there by an agent in her office. With permission from that agent and seller, she tells the neighbors about the new listing and asks for prospects.
To promote herself, Marie has created a brochure describing the newly listed property including a section about herself. To optimize the effect of these calls, Marie plans to go back into this neighborhood later to tell the neighbors more about this property (an open house, price reduction, listing sold, etc.). This is called circle prospecting.
Marie knows that it takes several meetings with people before they will remember her and trust her enough to give her leads or do business with her. She’s establishing herself as an expert in her neighborhood because she knows that people want to buy and sell real estate with someone they know and trust.
In two hours, Marie knocks on 50 doors and finds 20 households at home. Some of these people already know Marie. One is interested in chatting further with her about selling his home within the next three months. Marie makes an appointment to meet with him and his wife later that week.
3:30 p.m.
Marie heads back to the office to return phone calls, handle paperwork and do other support activities, including posting to social media.
5 p.m.
She finishes and gets ready to go home. As she gets up from her desk, she receives a phone call. An agent has an offer on Marie’s listed property and wants to present the offer that evening. Marie calls home to tell her 15-year-old son that she will not be home for dinner. She asks her son to relay that message to her husband. As you know, Marie’s goal is to sell a home within a month so she can get a check by month three.
The scheduling difference
A big difference between Marie and those who fail: Marie realizes she is establishing her own business. She’s willing to do whatever it takes because she intends to succeed at a high level.
New agents should focus on business-generating and relationship-building skills early in their careers. Phone calls, texts, door knocking and being out meeting people should be the priority when it comes to building your business and succeeding in sales. #
Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching.